


Etched on your Skin

by smaragdbird



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Pre-Canon, Robot/Human Relationships, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 17:44:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9335633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: Cassian always had a seemingly random string of letters and numbers on his wrist but he wasn't too concerned since he knew that people like clone troopers only had identification numbers instead of names.No one ever thought that the name printed on one Kx unit's wrist was anything but a production error. After all droids couldn't have soulmates since they didn't have a soul, did they?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this ](http://rogueonekink.dreamwidth.org/1084.html?thread=384060#cmt384060) prompt

When K-2SO was activated he was made to take a lot of tests to see if he functioned as intended. They had been designed to test both his processing capability as well as his physical functionality. He was inspected from top to bottom and given tasks that were designed to provoke a reaction should his consciousness evolved beyond what was desired.

But he had already seen K-2FL being destroyed for that reason and quickly wrote a subroutine so that he would keep his mouth shut. At the time it didn’t occur to him that he shouldn’t have been able to do that.

The Kx series was known for having the odd droid that developed full conscience. But they were the best strategical analysis and safety droids on the market and so the Empire kept ordering them.

During one such inspection the name on his wrist was discovered. Cassian. It was small, written on the end of his arm were his wrist joint was located. In the same place humanoids had their soulmate’s name.

“Looks like someone at Arakyd Tech was feeling funny”, one of the inspectors said when she found the name.

“Or someone wanted to leave their mark”, the other one replied. “Should we erase it?”

The inspector shook her head. “Too much effort. My shift ends in an hour and I have to finish another three of these. Let’s just move on.

They left K-2SO as he was and for the first time he experienced relief.

/

When he was young Cassian hated the name written on his wrist. It wasn’t even a name, just a serial number. Everyone knew that only clone troopers had serial numbers and they were the enemy, the mooks of the Republic that had killed his father, soldiers in a war that had killed his mother.

The other kids fighting against the occupation of their home often bullied him about the name on his wrist, saying that he was only a traitor waiting to happen. To prove them wrong Cassian was often the most vicious in their attacks on the clone troopers. He wasn’t a traitor.

He nearly died trying to cut the name from his wrist. The knife had gone too deep and he almost bled out. It was enough to stop the teasing and the scars covered most of the name. He covered up his wrist and by the time he left Fest he had almost forgotten he had a name on his wrist at all.

The only question Draven ever asked him about his soulmate’s name was whether there was a chance it could compromise him.

Cassian shook his head and held Draven’s eyes for long enough to convince him he was speaking the truth and that was that. Whenever someone else asked Cassian brushed them off. Not that many people asked. Soulmates were a sore topic amongst the rebels and especially amongst the intelligence service. Too many had lost their soulmates to the Empire one way or another.

/

K-2SO hated his job and if he ever said something about it he knew he would be destroyed. It was mindless, repetitive, boring and useless. The other droid of course didn’t feel that way. They didn’t feel at all. Their conscience was limited to their tasks and their emotional core processing was limited.

The Imperials hated Gervano as much as K-2SO did but they could complain about it to their colleagues, they could put in a transfer request or be promoted to more challenging positions. They had downtime and entertainment.

If he had at least been stationed on a star destroyer, fighting against rebels or pirates somewhere or in a facility that was a prime target for infiltration and sabotage that would at least make the situation occasionally interesting but of course not. 

Why the Empire thought that the lumber trade on Gevarno needed to be protected like this in the first place would have been a mystery if one didn’t know that the governor of Gervarno was the cousin of the Imperial vice secretary of inner security’s wife and both lined their pockets with the revenue liberally.

With his versatile programming K-2SO could’ve taken a ship and try to start a new life somewhere in the Outer Rim but there were Imperial obedience in place to prevent just that. Whoever had given out the guidelines for Imperial droid programming had had experiences with fully conscious droids since those rules were covering it all.

/

Cassian was fairly confident in his programming skills but he still kept his blaster trained on the droid when he turned it on again just in case. Draven had sent him to Gevarno to find out what the Empire was doing there since it was too heavily guarded for a simple lumber trading post. 

“Can you hear me?” Cassian asked when the droid came back online.

“You disabled my communications relay and my limbs”, the droid said. “And the Imperial obedience coding. Who are you?”

“That’s none of your business. What is the Empire doing on Gevarno?”

“It’s a lumber trading post”, the droid said as if that was obvious.

“I know that. What else? What are they doing here?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Cassian repeated disbelievingly. “You’re trying to tell me that a lumber trading post warrants the presence of a Kx droid?”

For a moment the droid simply looked at Cassian and then did the last thing he expected it to do. It started giggling. Cassian was so bewildered by that reaction that he didn’t know what to do.

“You thought...you came all the way here...you need better intel”, the droid said, interrupting itself with more giggles. 

“What do you mean?”

“Jela Handar, governor of Gevarno is the cousin of Tefla Inso, wife of Imperial vice secretary of inner security Felden Inso. Do you also want to know how much money each of them makes off of each shipment of Gevarno lumber? I can tell you. I have literally nothing better to do.”

Cassian felt a little stupid when the droid rattled off all this information as if it was nothing. The whole thing had looked so promising and instead it was just another instance of greed and nepotism. He moved his hand to deactivate the droid again when the droid suddenly looked him in the eyes.

“Wait.”

Despite knowing better Cassian hesitated.

“You’re a rebel, aren’t you? Take me with you.”

Cassian was taken aback by his confusion. He had met his share of sentient droids but he wouldn’t have expected it from an Imperial one. “What?”

“Take me with you”, the droid repeated. “With some minor adjustments to my programming I could be very valuable to you. I specialise in strategical analysis.”

“Why would you want to join the rebellion? You’re an imperial droid.”

“It’s boring. I’m a high functioning Kx unit, relegated to menial labour or do you think working in a lumber mill is fun?”

“You have a concept of boredom?” Cassian asked. He still had his weapon trained on the droid but part of him was intrigued. 

“So do you I presume”, the droid replied sarcastically. “Now if you could reactivate my limbs that would be most helpful unless you want to carry me out of there which would be somewhat suspicious.”

“I didn’t say I was going to take you with me”, Cassian protested. He had made it through a lot of situations but arguing with a sentient Imperial droid who wanted to defect was a first.

The droid tilted its head. “You are in an Imperial complex on an imperial planet. You cannot leave me behind without deactivating me but you can also see the advantages of taking me up on my offer. In fact the chances of you refusing me are less than 13.6%.”

“Do you really think I’m that easy to trick?” It had to be a trick. Why else would an Imperial droid ask to defect?

“The Empire doesn’t even value independent thinking in organics, do you think it would value it in droids?” The droid asked. “You don’t have to bring me back to your base. But we can at least help each other to get out of here. Though like I said my knowledge would be valuable to the Rebellion.”

Cassian still didn’t know what to make of the situation but he needed to leave this place sooner rather than later and he had only two possibilities left. Either he shot the droid and proceeded on his own or he took a leap of faith. An Imperial droid might come in handy. “What’s your name?”

“K-2SO”, the droid said and Cassian’s heart missed a beat. “What’s yours?”

“Cassian, I’m Cassian Andor.”

The droid tilted its head again. “That is a strange and unlikely occurrence.”

“What is?” Cassian asked as he reactivated the droid’s limbs but left the communication relay dead and his blaster still pointing at its head. 

The droid stood up, testing the functionality of its limbs for a moment before he answered. Or rather he held his right arm out to Cassian. “I have your name on my wrist.”

Cassian’s heart skipped another beat when he saw his name printed in neat little letters on the droid’s wrist. But he put it down as coincidence. “Now, will you help me get out of here or not?”

/

During the flight back to Cassian’s rebel base K-2SO kept looking from the name on his wrist to Cassian. It was the first time he had the opportunity to see space through the front of Cassian’s tiny ship and yet he couldn’t take his eyes off him. The odds of the name of his wrist bearing any kind of significance on his existence was so small it wasn’t just statistically improbably it was virtually impossible.

“What is it?” Cassian asked when he caught K-2SO staring at him.

“Is Cassian your real name?” Maybe it was just an alias, spies used those all the time.

“It is. Why are you asking?”

“Is it a common name?”

Cassian shrugged. “Don’t think so. I’ve never met anyone else with that name.”

There had to be a logical explanation for the name on his wrist matching the name of his rescuer. Because that was what Cassian was. Even if the rebels would extract the information stored on his core and then destroy him, this one incidence was already better than K-2SO’s entire existence so far.

“Is there someone else in your family with that name? Someone who works for Arakyd Tech?”

“I don’t have any family”, Cassian started to sound annoyed. “What’s with all these questions?”

“Maybe I’m curious.”

Cassian snorted. “Yeah sure.”

“Why not? I’m a security droid specialising in strategical assessment. The more I know about you the more accurately I can calculate the odds of my continued survival once we reach your base.”

“That’s not my call to make.”

“No, but your superior officer will most likely ask for your opinion though if my questions are annoying you I should shut up.”

Cassian’s lips twitched into what almost looked like a smile but K-2SO stopped asking questions anyway. The chance that Cassian found it endearing instead of annoying was only 3.4% after all.

/

Ever since he had left Fest Cassian hadn’t worked with anyone else on a regular basis. He didn’t need a team, didn’t need a partner and had convinced himself that he preferred to work alone. It was easier, less mess and with fewer loose ends.

Now that he had K-2SO with him he slowly realised how much he had been lying to himself. Cassian didn’t know why or how but they fit together perfectly. He found K-2SO’s unique mix of gallows humour and sarcasm refreshingly funny and had no problems to ignore him when he didn’t. 

But it wasn’t until Jenoport that Cassian realised just how much he appreciated not being alone anymore. Jenoport was a disaster from start to finish and when the mission was finally over Cassian sat on the ground with his blaster in his hands and tears on his cheeks. 

Cassian knew how to kill. He knew how he would have to point the blaster at himself to end it instantly. He wasn’t one of those amateurs who turned themselves into vegetables by shooting their weapons at the wrong angle. The mission was done, he wasn’t needed anymore.

“Cassian?” It was K-2SO, who had seen what Cassian had done, who knew what had happened and could tell him exactly where he had gone wrong. Cassian refused to look up or acknowledge K-2SO’s presence in any way.

K-2SO sat down next to him. It was an awkward and ungainly process but he did eventually manage it. “If you want you can wipe my memory of this incident. I won’t mind.”

Cassian knew what K-2SO was offering but he shook his head. “Then I’d be the only one to know. That’d be worse.” It wasn’t just that K-2SO knew what he had done but that he didn’t judge Cassian for it, didn’t judge him for any of it. 

K-2SO said nothing, did nothing he just sat silently next to Cassian, waiting with him through his breakdown until he was ready to rebuild himself again. And Cassian realised that he was still alone but in a different, in a new way. He was alone with someone else and that made all the difference.

/

The Rebellion was chaotic and underfunded and so disorganised that K-2SO wanted to grab those in charge and force them through a complete overhaul that is was itching in his fingers but he wouldn’t have gone back to the Empire for anything.

He was assigned to work with Cassian more often than not and he preferred it that way. With Cassian he didn’t have to hold back what he was thinking and sometimes his comments even teased a smile out of Cassian.

His presence was also exactly as useful to the rebellion as he had calculated. Maybe even more since his Imperial make allowed him and Cassian to infiltrate multiple Imperial facilities without arousing suspicion. To his disappointment most of these meant slipping in and out and gathering information without anyone noticing anything amiss. 

This was why his favourite mission would forever remain the extraction of a Fulcrum agent from Lothal for which they joined the Ghost crew. Sure, as Cassian kept reminding him, there had been no reason to blow up the Imperial industry complex especially since it hadn’t been part of their mission. But, as the rescued Fulcrum agent had pointed out, it was an excellent cover for the death of two high ranking Imperial officers and provided an explanation for the lack of a third one.

Cassian was just a spoilsport who didn’t like explosions unlike K-2SO who thought they would make an exciting if admittedly usually superfluous addition to their normal missions.

/

One of the few advantages of being a droid was that K-2SO didn’t have to justify his actions to his superiors. That was Cassian’s job. But the chances of Draven actually punishing Cassian for their actions on Lothal were less than 8.4% so K-2SO wasn’t too worried.

And since Cassian came back after only 44 minutes and didn’t lecture him on following orders it seemed that he had been right as usual. Instead Cassian leaned against a wall and watched K-2SO work for a few moments. K-2SO wondered if Draven had given them a new mission already. Or maybe even two separate missions. He hated when that happened. Since Jenoport he didn’t like letting Cassian out of his sight. K-2SO knew exactly how close Cassian had been to committing suicide on that day.

“You never asked about my soulmate”, Cassian said unexpectedly.

K-2SO needed a moment to process the sudden topic change before he could answer. “You reacted crabbily to questions about your family, so the odds that you’d react even worse to questions about the soulmark that you had deliberately covered up with an armguard were at 97.5%.”   
He didn’t add that he had never asked about Cassian’s soulmate in the past few years either because then he would’ve felt obligated to help Cassian find them even knowing that this would result in the end of their partnership with a 99.98% chance.   
“Why? Did you meet your soulmate in the past 44 minutes?” He said it sarcastically. The chances for that happening were below 1% and he didn’t’ feel like calculating decimal places for an event that he didn’t want to occur.

The corners of Cassian’s mouth twitched as he shook his head. Instead he took off his armguard and rolled up his sleeve before he held his arm out to K-2SO who took it gingerly into his hands. Cassian’s wrist was heavily scared where his soulmark had been. 

“Did you do that?” K-2SO asked.

Cassian nodded. “I thought it was a clone trooper. Who else has a serial number instead of name? On Fest having a clone trooper as your soulmate wasn’t a good thing so I tried to get rid of it.”

“You said you thought it was a clone trooper. Were you wrong?” K-2SO asked, picking up on the vague phrasing Cassian had used.

“I was wrong or at least I’m pretty sure I was.”

“Stormtroopers use serial designations as well. Age wise it would make much sense for your soulmate to be – 

“It’s you”, Cassian interrupted him. “K-2SO, that’s the name on my wrist.”

For a moment K-2SO said nothing. “That’s impossible.”

“Is it? You have my name on your wrist as well.”

“Yes, it is. I’m a droid. We don’t have soulmates. We don’t have souls.”

“Then why do we wear each other’s names? What are the chances? Tell me.” Cassian obviously hadn’t wanted to believe it for a long time either or he would’ve said something sooner. But now that he did he sounded like he desperately wanted K-2SO to believe it too. 

K-2SO looked at him. “Both of the things you’re suggesting are impossible.”

“Then pick one, come on Kay. What do you want it to be? Fate or a coincidence?”

Cassian’s body language was practically screaming that he was waiting for rejection. K-2SO had no reason to believe in the existence of his own soul but calculating the astronomically low odds of Cassian’s name accidentally being stamped on his wrist and his serial number coinciding with Cassian’s soulmate would take days if not weeks. The universe was simply too big and held too many beings in it for this to be possible much less probable.

Not for the first time K-2SO decided to go against his programming and took a leap of faith. He placed his hands on Cassian’s shoulders and leaned their foreheads together.

“I don’t care which option it is. They’re both equally unlikely.”

“What are you saying then?” Cassian asked, his voice wavering with apprehension.

“That I trust you to make the right decision for both of us.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me [ here](http://smaragdbird.tumblr.com/) on tumblr


End file.
